


A Light on the Mountain

by RunaLiore



Category: Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Genre: F/F, Kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 12:47:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,585
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2812505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunaLiore/pseuds/RunaLiore
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reiko drags Hinoe to a summer festival on a date and, for some reason, Reiko has insisted that Hinoe wear the yukata that will make her human for one night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Light on the Mountain

The midsummer wind washed over the mountains and leaned against the trees like a lazy rain. All through the forest, lanterns glowed and the air crackled softly as Hinoe stood at the gate of a shrine and waited. She waited while herds of tiny children flocked by and she waited while the sounds of the summer festival drummed against her ears, scowling at the stairs below and mumbling under her breath.

“Reiko, how dare you keep me waiting like this, and surrounded by all these brats.”

Stepping off the path, she huddled up out of sight and picked at her pale blue yukata. It was a special yukata, one that would turn a youkai into a human for a single night and, as Hinoe figured, that made it just a bit worse than wearing a melted garbage bag. Now that everyone could see her she was getting smiles and waves and happy greetings from children and their grandparents and every man younger than a hundred who passed by. As she raised her pipe to her lips, a small boy bumped into her knee and waved as he apologized and ran off. Almost choking on smoke, Hinoe coughed and doubled over as she leaned against the gate.

“Natsume Reiko… I swear, if another human gets their snot on me today I’ll curse your family for the next fifty years! I will – Ah! Reiko!”

Hinoe shoved a man standing in front of her off the stairs and into the forest on her way through the crowd. As the man rolled away downhill shouting, Hinoe over to a young girl in a demon mask and glowered at her.

“Reiko.” She almost said ‘you’re late’ but Reiko had been late to their last seven dates and each time Hinoe pointed that out, Reiko just said that ten or twenty minutes was barely a heartbeat for a youkai. She was right, but it still pissed Hinoe off.

“Hey,” Reiko slid her mask aside and grinned, “Sorry I’m late, I had to go back and change.”

Hinoe backed away and looked Reiko over, “Change? That’s the same thing you wore this morning… and yesterday too.”

“Oh, right.” Reiko dusted off her skirt and shrugged, “On the way over here there were four or five youkai waiting to try and take the book of friends so I had to chase them off. I got blood all over my yukata though so I had to go back and change.”

Hinoe frowned at her. “You’re not hurt are you?”

“No, it wasn’t any trouble,” Reiko said, stretching her arms out over her head, “Are you ready?”

Hinoe scoffed. “I can’t see why you wanted to come here in the first place,” She said, following Reiko back through the gate and onto the festival grounds, “This place is loud and full of people. You hate people.”

                Reiko looked back over her shoulder and gave her a wry smile, “What would you do if I just wanted to make everyone jealous when they saw you with me.”

Hinoe almost tripped but she steadied herself quickly. She wasn’t about to let Reiko throw her off balance tonight, not this soon and not where so many people could see them.

“Oh?” Hinoe took a breath from her pipe, “Is that so?”

“Not really,” Reiko swayed and bumped into Hinoe, slipping her hand down Hinoe’s arm and lacing their fingers together, “I just thought this might be fun and I didn’t want to come alone. Come on, I’ll show you.”

“Wait, Reiko!”

_____________

For almost an hour, Reiko dragged Hinoe from food stands to festival booths and all around the shrine. When they weren’t gorging themselves on food that they sometimes even paid for, Reiko was tearing her way through every festival game in sight. Hinoe was tearing through the game stalls as well, mostly by breaking them whenever she tried to best Reiko’s score. By the time they’d gone halfway around, Reiko had snatched up three stuffed bears, a candy necklace, two fans, and a small lacquered comb.  As she wandered through the crowd she tried slipping the comb absently into her hair and it kept falling out. They got ten steps further before Hinoe got frustrated seeing Reiko fiddle with it and stopped her in the middle of the crowd.

“Reiko, stop playing with that thing. Here,” Hinoe turned to face Reiko and reached behind her, brushing her fingers through Reiko’s hair and gathering it up in waves. She could feel Reiko’s breath on her neck and when Hinoe accidentally tugged on her scalp, Reiko leaned in a bit closer. The smell of cedar and earth was on her clothes and something sweet was tangled up in her hair. It would’ve made Hinoe blush, if Reiko weren’t still wearing that ridiculous mask.

“There.” Hinoe stepped back grinned, very pleased with herself. Reiko’s hair was folded up like a flower and she reached back to pat the bun.

“Oh, thanks.” Reiko patted her hair again and paused. She patted the bun one more time and then yanked the comb out, tossed her hair back. “Actually it’s way too hot to wear my hair up. Here, you keep it,”

“What? But it looked so good on – wait.” Hinoe leaned in and furrowed her brow, “You’re planning something again. If I take that, you’re going to tell me I owe you for it, aren’t you?”

“Probably.” Reiko said, offering the comb out in her palm. For a few seconds, Hinoe pursed her lips and her hand hovered over the comb. It was a bad idea, but she was going to take it. Then, just as Hinoe touched it, three young boys ran between them and knocked their hands away. There was a dull crack followed by the quiet crunch of wood against stone as the comb fell to the ground and the crowd trampled it to splinters. It was impossible to tell what Reiko was thinking behind her mask, but Hinoe was clearly furious.

“Those brats… Reiko! Wait here!”

“Ah, Hinoe,” Reiko reached after her but Hinoe was already charging off after the three boys. Following her at a distance, Reiko watched as the three boys hurried to the goldfish scooping stall and Hinoe pushed her way ahead of them. Before they scooped up even a single fish, Hinoe had stolen half the pond and every time they were close, she snatched the fish right off their paddles. Reiko laughed to herself as Hinoe snapped and shouted at the attendants pulling her away and she laughed even harder when Hinoe realized that she was now the proud owner of thirteen goldfish. Still fuming, Hinoe returned with a huge bag of water slung over her shoulder and a grimace on her face.

“This is ridiculous. What good are all these goldfish? What do humans even need this many goldfish for?”

Reiko grinned. “Well, you could always throw them at Madara later when he’s drunk and watch him chase them around.”

“Oh?” Hinoe glared down at the goldfish and grinned, “I’ll keep them then. I can’t wait to see – Reiko?”

“Hey, Hinoe…” Reiko waved her over to a hedge just beyond the lantern light. Two youkai were huddled up in the underbrush there, a fox and her kit, and Reiko was staring at them intently. Hinoe already knew what that meant and she sighed to herself.

“Alright, alright. Here, take it.” Grumbling quietly, Hinoe handed over the goldfish and Reiko offered them to the fox. After that, Reiko patted the kit on its head and returned to the festival without a word.

_____________

Just a few minutes before the parade, Hinoe and Reiko wandered by a shooting gallery and Hinoe suddenly stopped cold. A moment later she snorted and burst out laughing so hard she started to cough.

“Reiko! Look,” She pointed up at a small stuffed toy in a shooting gallery, an Oni with long, light hair and a huge spiked club, “It’s you. It even has the same face you make when you fall asleep in class and start drooling!”

Smirking wider than her mask, Reiko shot Hinoe a sharp, sidelong glance.

“…How do you know I fall asleep in class?”

Hinoe’s face flushed red and she choked. “M-Madara told me and – look, that doesn’t matter!” She started breathing heavily and Reiko laughed, and then Reiko set a stack of coins down on the counter.

“Hey, old man. I wanna play. How many hits do I need to get that doll?”

A hoarse grunt answered her and a calloused hand pushed her money back. “Move along, you’ve wrecked half the booths here tonight and you’re lucky we haven’t thrown you both off the mountain.”

“What?” Reiko slid her mask aside and pushed the money back as she scowled, “I’m paying you, just let me play one round!”

“I said move along!” Shouting and almost spitting in Reiko’s face, the old man pushed back and scattered her money across the street. As the festival drums sounded, all the faces in the street turned toward the chime of falling coins and watched Reiko stumble back. Hinoe started arguing with the old man and swiping at him while he fired back with his cork rifles and the bystanders laughed or gasped and gradually went on their way. In the middle of all this though, Reiko’s name started to worm its way through the stalls and soon she heard it cutting into her ears.

“Natsume Reiko! You’re here aren’t you, Natsume Reiko!”

A tall, pale woman with mottled cheeks pushed through the crowd and towered over Reiko. She recognized her vaguely, just enough to know that she should be familiar but not enough to know why.

“Natsume Reiko, you’re destroyed my family’s well and left a giant hole in the middle of my lawn! Your family isn’t returning my calls, how are you going to answer for this!?”

“What was that?” Hinoe’s head whipped back and she stormed over, glaring like death, “Do you want to fight me?”

“Reiko? Is that Natsume Reiko here?” An elderly man stepped through the crowd before Hinoe could get any further and he pointed sternly at Reiko. “That girl is cursed. Every day that she passes by my shop the shelves all shake and the windows crack!”

“You think it’s her fault you’ve got an Ayakashi living in your attic!?” Hinoe yelled but the parade drums were starting to drown her out. “Do you have any idea what Reiko – ah!” Hinoe felt a hand around her wrist and someone pulled her back through the crowd. Before her eyes even came into focus, she could see Reiko pulling her along through the parade, in between the booths, and back into the woods behind the shrine.

“Reiko! Reiko, wait!”

Reiko didn’t wait. She kept on running into the forest as the firelight melted away and the air grew cool and still. They were far enough now that the parade drums were barely as loud as the sound of leaves and twigs crackling underfoot and the moon was brighter than the festival lights. After getting smacked in the face with three branches though, Hinoe had gone far enough.

“Reiko, stop!” She tore her hand away and braced herself against her knees, huffing and wheezing while she caught her breath. Barely winded, Reiko pulled off her mask completely and looked up at the moon through the clouds.

“Sorry about that,” She said, smiling back at Hinoe, “I didn’t think they’d recognize me tonight. Hmm… Maybe I should’ve worn my hair up.”

“This is why I hate going places with people in them! I swear I’ll curse every one of them…” Hinoe glowered and knit her brow. She was grinding her teeth together and about to shout, but when she looked at Reiko she just shook her head and sighed. “Do you always run away to the woods when someone’s mad at you?”

Reiko smiled slyly, “I didn’t fill up the Book of Friends by wandering around the city.”

“Reiko…” Hinoe stared at her for a moment, lost. Her eyes drifted over Reiko’s face and settled there until she spotted a bright patch of red on Reiko’s arm and she rushed over.

“Reiko! You’re bleeding! Hold still,”

“Oh, this?” Reiko turned her elbow over and ignored the blood, “It’s probably just a scratch from when I pulled all those branches back.

Hinoe pouted and grabbed her arm anyway, “I don’t care, stay still while I wrap it up. You need to take better care of yourself!”

When Hinoe tried to look Reiko in the eye, she found something small and fuzzy there instead. Reiko was holding up a tiny plush doll, the one that Hinoe wanted from the shooting gallery. Smug and smirking, Reiko stepped back and held the doll just out of Hinoe’s reach.

“H-how?” Hinoe frowned and swiped at the doll but Reiko pulled it away, “When did you get that?”

“You’ve never been to a festival before, have you? You know those shooting gallery games are rigged, I needed a distraction if I was going to steal this doll for you. I’m not sure what you wanted it for though.” Curling her lips in, Reiko studied the doll and then smiled and nodded to herself, “Oh! It looks just like I do when I make when I tease Hinoe!”

“Y-you – ” Hinoe blushed red as the dawn and swiped at the doll again, “That’s not why I wanted it! I was just making fun of your awful face!”

“Really?” Reiko danced away as Hinoe missed again, “You seem to want it pretty badly right now. So,” she stopped suddenly and Hinoe almost stumbled into her. They were standing toe to toe and Reiko smiled slyly as she leaned in and whispered across Hinoe’s cheek, “I went through a lot of trouble to get this doll… if you really want it, what are you going to give me for it?”

As the clouds sailed away overhead, Hinoe grinned and her eyes narrowed softly. In single, smooth breath, she wrapped her arms around Reiko’s neck and pulled herself close.

“Natsume Reiko, you’re a truly wretched girl. I’m not going to forgive you for teasing me like this.”

Reiko grinned back and slid her fingers across Hinoe’s waist, “I’m still waiting.”

Muttering something in between breaths, Hinoe laced her fingers through Reiko’s hair and pressed their lips together. In the Moonlight that scattered through the leaves, they clasped their hands together and their hair tangled in the wind. By the time they finally pulled away, Hinoe was out of breath. When she finally brushed the hair from her eyes and caught her balance again, she saw Reiko staring into her eyes completely stern and stone-faced.

“Okay, but really, what are you going to give me for this doll?”

Hinoe almost fainted. Muttering an affectionate curse, she stooped over Reiko's shoulder somehow both outraged and smitten all at once. It took her another two hours to coax that doll from Reiko’s grasp and by then the festival was over. Although she wasn’t showing any signs of fatigue, Reiko started wobbling on her feet on the way out of the forest and halfway down the mountain, she fell asleep. Or maybe, as Hinoe suspected, she pretended to fall asleep so that Hinoe would have to carry her the rest of the way. Hefting Reiko up onto her shoulders, Hinoe sighed and headed into town as the midsummer breeze brushed the scent of cedar across her face.


End file.
